LIKE so much Barack Obama glibly says, raising taxes on “the rich” has potentially disastrous implications.

Jack up the capital-gains-tax rate in the United States and more Americans can be expected to send their capital elsewhere. That means sending jobs elsewhere, so that even people with no capital to invest lose employment opportunities.

Taxes on businesses get passed along to consumers, even though only the business writes the check to the government.

The idea that you can single out one segment of society to be taxed or mandated, for the benefit of the rest, brings to mind a San Francisco car dealer’s sign: “We cheat the other guy and pass the savings on to you.”

The economy isn’t a zero-sum game where someone gains what others lose. The whole economy can lose when ill-considered policies gain political popularity and stifle economic growth.

People who don’t own a single share of stock can still lose big-time when capital-gains taxes are raised – not only because jobs can follow capital out of the country but also because millions of working people’s pension plans hold corporate stock, and those people’s retirement incomes will depend on the value of those stocks, which is reduced by capital-gains taxes.

One of the biggest taxes isn’t even called a tax – inflation. By the end of the 20th century, $100 wouldn’t buy as much as $20 would buy in the middle

And, given the staggering cost of the government’s financial bailouts, there is no way that Obama’s spending plans can be carried out without inflation.

When politicians start talking about taxing “the rich,” remember the old saying: “Send not to know for whom the bell tolls. It tolls for thee.”